Ash Wednesday

This past Wednesday we celebrated Ash Wednesday. Over 2,000 people came to Sacred Heart to worship one of the most popular and important holy days in the liturgical calendar. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer.

The tradition of Ash Wednesday began during the papacy of Gregory the Great over 1,400 years ago. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person’s forehead, he speaks the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.”